The Subtle Doctor.

The most powerful and certainly the most wily thinker of this new era was John Duns Scotus (c. 1266–1308), called the Doctor Subtilis or "the subtle doctor." Born in the village of Duns in Scotland, Scotus, declared "Blessed" by the Roman Catholic Church, was educated at Oxford. Following his ordination to the priesthood in 1291 (one of the few solid dates from his life known to scholars), he "reigned" as master of theology at Oxford. He was subsequently sent to Paris, where he wrote a commentary on Peter Lombard's Sentences. He occupied one of the chairs assigned to the Franciscans in 1305 and a short time later was sent by his superiors to Cologne, where he taught until his death in 1308. Given the fact that he died at the young age of 42, it is little wonder that much of his promise as a philosopher remained unfulfilled...